Essential Japanese Kanji

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Since its publication in 1993, this beginner Japanese workbook and textbook has been a hit with teachers and students for learning basic Japanese kanji characters. Speak, read and write Japanese with this newly revised edition that has been updated and expanded by members of the Kanji Text Research Group at the prestigious Tokyo University.

Essential Japanese Kanji Volume 1 presents the 250 kanji characters that are most frequently found in many places in Japan, including:

Street signs

Restaurant menus

Subway ticket machines

ATMs

Stroke order diagrams and writing practice squares present every kanji systematically alongside its various meanings, readings, vocabulary compounds and derivations. Extensive practice exercises and self-graded quizzes (with answer keys at the back) help you improve your skill at recognizing and using the kanji.

In addition to the practical focus of learning the kanji in the context of actual situations, each chapter includes Advanced Placement (AP)-type exam questions mirroring the format of the College Board's Japanese Language and Culture examination. The captivating introduction explains the origins of the kanji and the Japanese kana phonetic alphabets. Appendices list the kanji in two ways—according to pronunciations and radicals—and a glossary of common vocabulary compounds.

The Kanji Text Research Group at Tokyo University is made up of teachers whose focus is teaching Japanese language to foreign students. They have spent more than two decades developing the most effective methods to help beginning learners of Japanese grasp the kanji. This group is part of Tokyo UniversityÆs prestigious Graduate School of Engineering, which accepts and trains a sizable number of foreign post-graduate students each year from around the world.